Music of the Night

Thursday, April 12 and Saturday, April 14, the RPO celebrates spring with a two-night Spring Festival, featuring pieces by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Bartok, Sibelius, Richard Strauss, Christopher Rouse, and Joan Tower.

Saturday evening, the RPO string and percussion sections perform Mozart’s Serenata notturna (Evening Serenade). Notturna, meaning night or nocturnal, probably references the piece’s original role as a witty and entertaining piece to be performed at an evening social gathering. Click below for an audio preview of the Minuet and Trio.

Thursday, the string and percussion sections take center stage for evening music of a different kind, performing Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by Hungarian composer Bela Bartok. Comprised of four movements, the third movement is representative of what is often referred to as Bartok’s night music—music that evokes the eerie otherworldy-ness of the nocturnal world. Bartok used this so-called night music in many of his slow movements and the night music style has since been used by composers from George Crumb to Miles Davis. While Mozart's Evening Serenade is the perfect accompaniment to a pleasant and sociable evening, Bartok evokes night at its lonliest and most macabre; the eerieness of this music was used to great effect by director Stanley Kubrick in his 1980 film The Shining.

Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta is among Bartok's most famous pieces. (Next season, the RPO will perform another of Bartok's greatest and most famous works--the Concerto for Orchestra.)

Tickets start at $15. Buy a ticket to Thursday' s performance and get 50% off Saturday. For tickets, call 454-2100 or click here.

Juliana Athayde Discusses Barber's Violin Concerto

This weekend's program features Brahms's Tragic Overture and Symphony No. 4, as well as Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, performed by RPO concertmaster Juliana Athayde (The Caroline W. Gannett and Clayla Ward Chair); below, Juliana discusses her thoughts on this concerto, the special memories that it evokes, and more:

My earliest memory of the Barber violin concerto is from thirty years ago, when I was just one year old playing in the playpen as my mom taught the piece to one of her violin students. Of course I don't actually remember being in the playpen but this particular piece has always held special meaning for me and it feels like an old friend, a piece I have always known. I truly remember it as one of the first pieces of music I ever heard, sounding familiar and comforting, and playing it brings back wonderful memories. I am delighted to share this wonderful concerto with RPO audiences this weekend.

The first two movements are full of gorgeous melodies, passionate moments, and tranquil themes. Notably, the second movement features a beautiful oboe solo, which will be played by my husband Erik Behr, introducing the enchanting melody later given to the solo violin. The last movement is a furious perpetual motion, meaning that the tempo is fast and the notes are constant! In the entire movement (spanning five pages of music) I have fewer than thirty measures of rest! This movement sounds at times fun and lighthearted while at other moments menacing and intense. The race to the end of the movement is topped off with a final flourish as if to say "ta-da"!

I hope the RPO patrons will love listening to the piece as much as I love playing it. This concerto is particularly accessible to listeners, especially the first two movements with their romantic and sweeping melodies. The sheer intensity and excitement of the final movement is enough to get everyone's heart pumping!

Enjoy!

Hear Juliana perform Barber's Violin Concerto with the RPO, Thursday March 1 and Saturday March 3 in Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Click here for tickets, or call 454-2100.

RPYO to Perform Annual Side-by-Side Concert

The RPYO presents its Annual Side-by-Side Concert with the RPO on Sunday, March 4 at 3 PM in Kodak Hall
David Harman, Conductor


Sunday, March 4, RPO musicians will share music stands with the talented student musicians of the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for a performance of two renowned orchestral works by famous composers of Czech origin in a concert called “Moldau & Mahler.”

The program will feature Bedřich Smetana’s (left) symphonic poem The Moldau, which traces the journey of the Moldau River as it flows through the Bohemian countryside and into the city of Prague towards its confluence with the Elba River. A highly innovative work for the 1870s, it is rich with orchestral colors, evocations of rustic Bohemian life, and Slavic folklore, and portrays nature as both a benign and tumultuous force.

Forty years younger than Smetana, Gustav Mahler (right) lived much of his life in Vienna but never forgot his own Czech origins. His symphonies are rich with streets sounds, tunes, rhythms, and emotional experiences recalled from his childhood. Some of these are included in the big, intense final movement of his first symphony that the RPYO and RPO will also perform together, a movement that Mahler labeled “stormy” and “vehement,” referring perhaps to both natural forces and human emotions.

The first half of the concert will feature RPYO Concerto Competition winners Matthew DeCross, a 12th grade marimbist from Pittsford Sutherland High School; Erica Klafehn, a 12th grade violist from Penfield High School; and Hayley Miller, an 11th grade flutist from Canandaigua Academy. Matt will play a lively movement from the popular Marimba Concerto No. 1 by Brazilian composer Ney Rosauro. The mood will shift dramatically as Erica performs the deeply mournful Trauermusik written in 1936 by the German composer Hindemith, who wrote this work not only in grief for the death of the British King George V but also for the traumas he was witnessing in Germany under the Nazis. A movement from Mozart’s first Flute Concerto, to be performed by Hayley, will be a delightful restorative tonic, as only Mozart can be. To finish the concert’s first half, the entire RPYO will come together for Argentine composer Arturo Ginastera’s musical portrait of scenes from the Argentine countryside.

March 4th at 3:00 PM, Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. Tickets are $12.00 for Adults and $8.00 for Students and Seniors and can be purchased from RPYO musicians, from the Eastman Theatre Box Office on 433 Main Street in the East Wing of the Eastman School of Music, by telephone at 454-2100, online, or by calling the RPYO at 454-7311 x224.

We invite you to go to rpyo.org to learn more about the RPYO, including information on our Spring Auditions for new members, which will take place at the end of March.

RPO Bassists Lead Master Class in Ithaca

Before the RPO's performance in Ithaca last weekend, RPO Bassists Gaelen McCormick and Colin Corner (The Anne Hayden McQuay Chair) made a special visit to Ithaca College. The pair was invited by Ithaca College Professor of Bass Nicholas Walker to teach a master class to Walker’s bass studio. They also performed a set of duets for the students.

Remarked Walker: “This was a particularly rewarding day for our double bass students who had the opportunity to spend over two hours with Gaelen McCormick and Colin Corner. How generous of these musicians to drive down early through a snow storm to perform duets for our students, and then give them terrific coaching about their own playing and learning approaches. My students and I were so engaged by their elegant chamber music, and the wealth of knowledge and experience they bring to their art.”
RPO bassist Gaelen McCormick (left) joined us to share her thoughts on the master class; read below for her first-hand account:

"I was so delighted to be contacted by the bass professor at Ithaca College, Dr. Nicholas Walker, asking if any of us in the bass section would like to work with his students on the day the RPO was in Ithaca. Colin Corner (pictured right) and I both said yes to this opportunity. We began the class by performing Dave Anderson's "Seven Duets." Colin used to play in New Orleans where Dave is principal, and had all kinds of (hilarious) background stories to share with the class about the music and the composer.

Then we listened to four of the students play music ranging from American fiddle tunes which a student had arranged for himself as a solo work, a contemporary work written only a few months ago where the student played with great extended techniques and even sang during the solo, to works of Bach. The students were such a great group! They all had a great positive approach to playing, and were very supportive of each other. I was also impressed by their willingness to try new ideas on the spot. I led the class in a Dalcroze Eurythmics exercise where we walked and sang around the classroom. Everyone jumped right in to try this without reservation. After class, the students stayed on to ask Colin about his gorgeous Hill bass, which he recently bought, and to take turns playing a bit on it.

We were delighted to work with such creative and outgoing musicians!"